Exploiting Hollywood 1980

Ronald didn't have much time to think, as the Best Picture award was coming soon.

Barbra Streisand, the most beautiful Jewish actress, wore a shawl of blonde hair and swayed on stage in a black dress with a large slit. Because the previous awards timed out, her movements were extremely fast.

Ronald has two films nominated as a credited producer this year. The Unresolved Love between Man and Ghost and Dances with Wolves. In terms of contribution to the film, Dances with Wolves may be more important. After all, a different director may not have made it possible, but without his support, Dances with Wolves might have died on the way.

"Oh, God." When Ronald saw it was Barbra Streisand, he couldn't help but think of the several times he had commented on how ugly she was in front of others. It would be embarrassing if I won the prize tonight.

"This year marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of film, so it is very appropriate to end today's awards ceremony with an award that represents the highest honor of the film festival."

Barbra Streisand spoke quickly, finished naming the five nominated movies, and immediately opened the envelope.

"The Oscar goes to..." Barbra Streisand smiled through her hump-nosed smile, as if she had an expression I'd always known she was, "Dances with Wolves! Ronald Lee and Kevin Coster." Accept”.

The meaning of Streisand's smile is unclear. I don't know if it's jealousy or the sequelae of plastic surgery. It makes people feel weird. She didn't announce the winner loudly enough, leaving Ronald stunned for two seconds, as if to make sure he was the winner.

"Ahhh..." Diane had already started cheering and pinched Ronald's arm subconsciously, obviously even happier than him.

Ronald stood up and kissed Diane. Then he stood up, ran quickly to Kevin Costner, and hugged him.

Costner was obviously dazed with joy and was in a state of confusion. He had just returned from backstage and immediately received another heavyweight award. It felt like he was dreaming.

After Ronald hugged him, he realized what he was doing and quickly ran onto the stage behind Ronald. The assistant next to him was already gently reminding him to hurry up because the broadcast time was about to time out.

"Well..." Barbra Streisand didn't say much to Ronald. She just gave him the statuette and then hugged and kissed him on the cheek as usual.

When he presented the award to Costner, he discovered that he was so nervous and excited that he forgot to put down the Best Director statuette and was still holding it in his hand.

There was a rush, and Kevin Costner held the two statuettes and laughed loudly.

The camera moved away from the two men standing on the stage and gave a close-up of Costner's wives, Cindy and Diane respectively. Cindy bit her lip and had tears in her eyes. Diane's smile was as bright as a flower, and she had the most beautiful smile of a professional actor.

Ronald stood in front of the microphone and waited for the applause to subside before he began his acceptance speech.

He gave up the idea of ​​teasing, because the previous best director was not popular, and any jokes at this time were not good, so he just went to the most classic one to thank everyone.

"I want to thank the Academy, I want to thank the judges. I want to thank Daydream Pictures, Disney, and Kevin Costner and screenwriters Michael Black, Graham Greene, Mary McDonough, and everyone involved in this film. The cast and crew of the film. I also want to thank the National Association for the Preservation of Indian Culture... and finally, my wife, my family..."

Routine remarks, of course, routine applause. Kevin Costner came up to take over. His other director award winner, Ronald, helped him get it. He put the Best Picture award on the table and took out another card from his pocket, but the words on it were that he had won the Best Director award just now. Already read it.

He had no choice but to turn the card over and pretend there was a Best Picture speech on it. In fact, he was just buying time to organize his words.

"Hahaha..." The audience let out a burst of good-natured laughter.

"I want to express my gratitude to you..." Kevin Costner simply put the card down, he was still quick-witted, "I will never forget tonight, my family will never forget tonight... South Dakota The Sioux tribe will never forget tonight..."

During the "Dances with Wolves" theme song, Ronald and Costner walked down the exit door together.

"Ronald, I heard what you said about me." In the exit aisle, Barbra Streisand said to Ronald with a smile, making a gesture to sign a message into her ear.

"Oh? I'm actually your fan..." Ronald now had no feelings for words of this magnitude.

"If there is a chance, we should work together on a film."

"Have the opportunity."

"Oh, God, we actually won seven awards." Costner was still very excited when he got backstage.

Dances with Wolves was already a big hit tonight, and it was widely believed that the film was likely to win five or six statuettes. However, Best Director and Best Picture are not within the prediction range. Instead, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, and Best Supporting Actress are all included in various predictions.

"Kevin, do you have anything else to say?" Backstage after winning the award, everyone had a short period of time to be interviewed by the media.

Those reporters had just finished interviewing Costner for Best Director, and now they wanted to interview Costner for Best Producer.

"Like I said, it was a surprise, but I think our film deserves this award."

"Ronald..." The reporter remembered Ronald and asked him about his feelings, "I heard that you almost took over the directorship of this movie?"

Ronald looked at Costner, which was interesting. Why did the reporters ask that? Although the two signed an agreement at the time, if Costner encountered obstacles in the filming, Ronald had the right to replace the director.

"I just said that you provided great help in the filming of the movie. I don't know where they got the news." Costner whispered a few words in Ronald's ear, then turned to the reporter and said, "Without Ronald's optimism, this movie would not have been as successful as it is now." He spoke with the feeling of an old-fashioned white man, giving people a very honest impression.

"Kevin is a very talented director and always has his own unique ideas. I saw the finished film earlier than you, and I always feel very lucky to be able to feel the scenery and the majesty of the Native American tribes." Ronald denied it of course, because it was not easy to take credit for this.

After dealing with the reporters, the award ceremony over there ended. Ronald and Kevin Costner, screenwriter Blake, and the two nominated actors all gathered together. When Diane and Costner's wife Cindy arrived, they were ready to go to the after-party.

While waiting for the car, Ronald happened to see Martin Scorsese there.

"Why do you have two?" Scorsese's mood had improved, or he hid his dissatisfaction deeply.

"Ah, there is another one for Kevin's director award, I'll take it for fun. I really didn't expect..."

"Things are unpredictable, it reminds me of the situation ten years ago, it's exactly the same..." Scorsese saw Ronald like this, and he had to smile bitterly at him. The two of them sympathized with each other. If he knew that this movie was so easy to win an award, Ronald would definitely grab it to direct it himself.

"Ronald!" Diane called him over there, and Ronald had to make an appointment with Scorsese, "Let's talk in person in two days."

"What does Marty mean by ten years ago and today are exactly the same?" Ronald said to himself in the car.

Ten years ago was the 53rd Academy Awards in 2019, and Scorsese seemed to be nominated.

"Hey, he lost to Robert Redford in Ordinary Man that year." Diane was deeply impressed by the Oscars that year. It was at that time that she met Brother Ronnie.

"Oh..." Ronald suddenly realized and the floodgates of memory opened.

"Ordinary Man" was also defeated by Robert Redford when Martin Scorsese's "Raging Bull" was the hot favorite for Best Director and Best Picture.

Moreover, Robert Redford is also a white director, and "Ordinary Man" is also his debut.

"Raging Bull" also tells the story of the lower-middle class of Italians, and Joe Pesci was also nominated for Best Supporting Actor. Of course, he didn't win that time, only Robert De Niro won the Best Actor.

It seems that no matter how outstanding Italian-American movies are, there is only one important award, as if there is always a quota.

This quota was taken by Joe Pesci, who has been ignored several times. Maybe the judges think Scorsese can wait.

Thinking about it this way, it suddenly became clear. The Godfather, which was popular at the time and ranked first in reviews and box office throughout the year, only won the Best Actor and Best Picture. Coppola lost the Best Director to Bob Fossey of Cabaret, and the three nominated for Best Supporting Actor all lost to Joel Grey, the actor of Cabaret.

Only Godfather II was given the Director Award because of the big controversy over Coppola's failure to win the award in the first film. In this way, Al Pacino, who was nominated for Best Actor, also did not win the award, and only Robert De Niro won the Best Supporting Actor.

The car arrived at the awards party soon. Ronald got off the car and took the two little golden men to the place where the award base was engraved. After many years, engraving has become an on-site job and can be taken back in the evening.

"Hey, where is my little golden director? Has anyone seen my director trophy?"

As soon as he arrived at the queue, Ronald saw Kevin Costner wiping his sweat, and he only had a Best Picture trophy in his hand. He was so anxious that he looked around and kept asking his wife and companions.

"I thought you forgot this..." Ronald handed the little golden man to him.

"Oh, God, I thought I lost it, and I thought it would be on the headlines tomorrow..."

"Well, this is a good headline. The new Oscar winner, the best director, lost his trophy."

Ronald smiled and retracted his hand holding the trophy, making a hugging gesture, "If you don't want it, give it to me..."

"Hahaha..." The colleagues in the Dances with Wolves crew laughed happily. Even Graham Greene, who was depressed because he didn't win the Best Supporting Actor, smiled for the first time.

"I don't know what they think, in my eyes, you are the best. And you, Mary, you too."

As a producer, Ronald also had to say some comforting words to the two supporting actor nominees who didn't win.

"I think I played the Indian really well." Graham Greene hadn't said much tonight, and was very moved by Ronald's words. The Oscars are a place of fame and fortune, and it's really uncomfortable to watch such a scene when I didn't win the award.

Ronald looked at the two people, and sometimes it was very interesting. Kevin Costner is a winner. If he were to tell these two people that he is a winner, it might have the opposite effect. It is more comfortable for me to be a loser myself.

In contrast, Mary McDonough was taken lightly. She was a shy, beautiful and capable actor. When he acted in Dances with Wolves, he was already thirty-seven, and he played father and daughter with Graham Greene, who was only ten months older than him. No one would have felt discordant if they didn't say it.

…

"This is interesting. It reminds me of the last emperor a few years ago."

After returning home, Ronald did not go to bed immediately. Instead, he found the entire Hollywood yearbook of the 1980s and began to look at the past Oscar winner lists.

"What do you mean?" Diane put on her pajamas and yawned.

"The Last Emperor swept all the nominated awards, except for the two leading actors and actresses. The same goes for Dances with Wolves. There was not a single acting award among the nominations."

"It's true..." Diane calculated. It is true that films that show the stories of ethnic minorities can win awards, but acting awards are extremely difficult.

"And this, my God, many well-known directors were nominated ten years ago." Ronald flipped through the list of the year when "Ordinary People" won the award ten years ago.

Robert Redford won the best director award, which caused a lot of controversy that year. The media generally believed that this was stealing Scorsese's Best Director Award. This movie has also been criticized, saying it doesn't live up to its reputation.

In addition to Scorsese, there were also David Lynch, Richard Rush, and Roman Polanski.

Ronald read the list carefully. There seemed to be some important rules in it. If you want to win an Oscar, you need to study them thoroughly.

Let Diane go to bed first, and Ronald studied alone for a long time, but he still got some clues.

Among the Oscar judges, actors have an overwhelming advantage. Martin Scorsese's two highly requested nominations were unanimously recognized by famous directors and critics, but not by ordinary directors and ordinary actors. And they are the largest group of voters.

This year's Coppola's The Godfather Part III is not really capable enough to win the award, but they don't want to give it to a few other people. "Goodfellas" is about the bottom of the gang, "The Debt" is about a husband who was suspected of murdering his wife after she was in a coma and was finally acquitted, and "The Fatal Bet" is about a family of liars, and in the end the male protagonist is dead.

These most popular judges are actually not the kind of people who have a deep understanding of film art. They can be regarded as people with ordinary audience aesthetics and some professional abilities.

Anyway, those movies didn't suit their tastes. Only the performance of the best actor Jeremy Irons, they thought, was understandable and well acted. So when it comes to the Best Director and Best Picture awards that they don't understand, the actor judges all voted for "Dances with Wolves". Anyway, they voted for this movie. It sounds good.

Ten years ago, it was the same story. Roman Polanski is surrounded by scandals, David Lynch's film is a freak, and Richard Rush's film is an inexplicable story between a stuntman and the director. Anyway, they will not cast it.

And Scorsese's "Raging Bull" is another loser's story. In the end, the boxing champion can only make a living as a commentator. Still shot on black and white film, interspersed with some color images taken with everyday home cameras.

People who know the art think it’s brilliant, but I’m afraid most of these actor judges commented: “I can’t understand!”

Anyway, I don’t want to vote for Scorsese and others, so I will vote for a director who can understand the film and is the largest white group in Hollywood. In addition, these two white directors have switched careers from actors...

After thinking about these things, Ronald fell asleep.

"Richard came to see you..." It was already noon the next day, and Diane woke Ronald up.

"What's the matter?" A sleepy-eyed Ronald stood up quickly.

"Several newspapers have published rumors that the most exciting scenes in Dances with Wolves were not directed by Kevin, but were directed by you..." Richard put several newspapers in front of them.